Paying Her Debt
by OMariquitaO
Summary: A servant asks Tywin Lannister for a favour and he does the right thing for the (maybe not so) right reason.
1. Chapter 1

**Paying Her Debt**

**Content:** Tywin Lannister does the right thing for the (maybe not so) right reason.

Rated M for later chapters

ooooOOOoooo

**Chapter 1: The Promotion**

Alienor could hear the shouts half way down the stairs that led to the enormous kitchen of the castle. The blue shadows of dawn were just slowly reaching King's Landing, creeping into the chambers of the noble lords and ladies, most of whom were still asleep. But down in the kitchen a small army of cooks, bakers, and servants had been busy since dawn announced its coming through a faint glow at the horizon.

Soon the high-borns residing in the castle would wish to break the fast, some of them in the great hall, some in their solars and some – usually the ladies – still in their beds propped up against cushy pillows. So many people, so many locations, so many tastes…and all the food needed to be prepared swiftly without delays, mistakes, or interruptions.

The angry voice travelling through the whole kitchen area clearly was an interruption. It belonged to Sid Packer, one of the castle's two stewards and in charge of running everything related to the inside of the castle. He had the sole authority over the whole household administration, which gave him power over the lives of more than a hundred cooks, bakers, cleaners, maids, painters, and everybody else employed in the castle, except for the lucky ones that were the personal servant of a lord or lady. Handmaidens, for example, did not have to fear Packer's frequent fits of temper or even more frequent cold calculations about how many workers were truly necessary for efficiently running the household. Usually the result of his calculations were some poor souls, and sometimes whole families, being cast out on the streets after Packer had given them one full day to find employment elsewhere.

An uneasy feeling started to spread through her body while she slowly went closer to the kitchen. The shouting grew louder with every step.

From the day she had arrived at the castle with one sick little sister in tow and asking for work, Packer hadn't even tried to hide the fact that he would rather have her and her sister back where they came from. Luckily for her, the up-coming royal wedding and the pre festivities had significantly increased the workload for the kitchen staff. And even Packer couldn't deny that she was a good worker.

The shouting had stopped. Warily Alienor went around the last corner and nearly bumped into a female figure that dashed past her while sobbing and cursing. It was Ella, a very young, very pretty servant. A few months ago, previously to Alienor`s arrival, she had been promoted to serve food and wine during the many war councils and meetings of the lords and knights. Since then, she hadn't stopped boasting about what important people she saw, how impressive but fearsome Lord Tywin was, how seeing Lord Varys always made her cringe and how handsome all the guards to the council chambers were.

Alienor didn't like her. Ella was vain and took herself to seriously, but at the same time she respected the younger woman for her hard work and clear ambition to make something of herself even if it was only within the restricted world of the castle.

"One day", she had whispered to Alienor a few days ago while arranging Lord Baelish's supper on a tray. "One day, I will become a chamber maid, maybe even a handmaid. Not for a lady, of course, but maybe for a rich merchant's wife." Alienor had just smiled, but it had been an encouraging smile. Ella had already come far. At just 11 years old the daughter of a whore had caught Lord Baelish - who owned the brothel her mother still worked in - in a good mood and successfully pleaded with him to find employment for her as a kitchen maid. Lord Baelish, who had always liked people, who would not let themselves be restricted by the circumstances of their birth, had just written a short letter and sent her straight to Packer. Two days after her bold request, Ella had been scrubbing pots and pans in the kitchens, while her mother mourned the loss of all the money a noble man would undoubtedly have paid for the pretty girl's virginity. Six years later, Ella was serving the noblemen their supper instead of spreading her legs for them.

Alienor`s eyes followed the distressed girl. Something bad had happened. Ella never cried. No matter how often the cooks would snap at her for being too slow or too fast, no matter how often the female overseer – an old, fat woman – would scold her for being too vain, too cheeky or too clumsy, Ella would always just look them in the eye, hold her head even higher and continue her work with iron determination. It was hard work that had brought her that far, not tears. She had learned early in her life that crying would get her nowhere.

"You!" Alienor snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Packer, her eyes wide with fear. He was a tall, bony man with small, pale eyes, a big nose and nearly no hair. Nobody knew how old he was. The old, fat overseer said, he already had been around when she had arrived at King's Landing many years ago. Back then she had been a young woman, eager to support herself after she had left her husband, a drunk she had only married because of the baby in her belly, and whom she had left because he had beaten same baby out of her in one of his drunken states.

"Yes, sir?" Alienor slowly stepped forward, waiting to be scolded once again for having a sister that was too sick to work.

"Look at me." The steward narrowed his already small eyes and let his gaze sweep over her whole body before stopping on her face. "You will do."

"For wha-"

"The stupid girl will leave the castle. Unfortunately, Lord Tywin expects breakfast for him and his lords in exactly 15 minutes." Packer grabbed Alienor by her shoulder and pushed her in the direction of the kitchen. "Someone has to replace her and I can't just send an ugly, dirty kitchen wench up to them."

"But why is…" Alienor was confused. She was even more convinced that something bad had happened to Ella and something was happening to her as well. She just wasn't sure, yet, if it was good or bad.

Packer stopped in his tracks and incredulously looked at her. "Did you just dare to ask me a question?"

"No, sir, of course not. I was just…But I am a kitchen wench."

The steward just grimaced and continued his way. They had reached the main kitchen and he gestured toward the old, fat overseer. "Indeed you are. But you are nice to look at and not dirty, at least not yet. You will resume to your normal duties after serving breakfast, but until I have found a replacement for this whore, you will take care of serving the lords as well. Understood?" He didn't leave her enough time to answer and just vanished in the crowd of busy cooks and frantic kitchen maids.

"Well, girl, it's your lucky day." The overseer slowly heaved her enormous body from the stool she was sitting on and shouted at the cooks that they should hurry with Lord Tywin's breakfast. Except for Packer, she was the only one in the kitchen who was allowed to shout at everybody. There were rumours that sometimes she would even shout at Packer. "You just got promoted."

Alienor blankly stared at her. "But, I don't know how to serve!" She had never been near a high-born. Although being from a far better background than Ella, she had only seen the lords and ladies from a distance. She seldom could escape the kitchen and when she wasn't working she was either catching up sleep or tending to her little sister while girls like Ella and the chambermaids were seeing to the noble's comfort.

"Not much to know about", the overseer said and started assembling several plates on a big tray. "Knock on the door, go in, place everything on the table and go out again. Don't drop anything, don't say anything, don't even make a curtsy. Don't do anything that could get their attention and disturb them. In and out, like a little pretty ghost." The old woman grabbed the tray and pushed it into Alienor's hands. Her words were rough and here expression was stern, but for the first time Alienor could see that she had kind eyes.

The young woman grabbed the wooden tray with sweating hands. It was heavy and with dread she though about the long way up to the Tower of the Hand. Alienor left the kitchen and headed towards the stairs. When she passed the small hall in which the cooks and kitchen maids used to have their meals, she saw Ella sitting at the far end of the table, piercing a big bowl of porridge with red, teary eyes. Knowing Packer, it was probably her last meal in the castle. Alienor hurried past her, crossed the wide courtyard that was just starting to get busy and finally reached the Tower of the Hand.

Four hundred and thirty-five steps later she reached a massive, wooden door that was guarded by two Lannister men, who, in her opinion, were not handsome at all.

"You will get used to the stairs", the younger one reassured her and let his gaze linger on her flushed face long enough to make her flush even more. Alienor felt vulnerable. Being out of breath, carrying a tray that got heavier by the minute, hair strands breaking free of her neatly braided plait and the terrifying prospect of meeting the most powerful men in the Seven Kingdoms made her feel unable to cope with the advances of a young soldier, who probably was too full of himself despite of his only task being to stand still in front of a door all day.

"Are the Lords already waiting?" She deliberately addressed the older guard, who had a wedding band around his finger. Not that this had ever stopped a man, but he paid considerably less attention to her heaving bosom.

The man just shook his head. "They haven't arrived yet. But Lord Tywin is already in the council chamber, so go ahead."

Alienor nodded in thanks and quickly slipped through the door that the soldier kindly had opened for her. The overseer had told her that the council chamber would be on the right hand side of the corridor. While Alienor desperately tried to remember if it was the first or the second door, suddenly the meaning of the guard's words hit her. Lord Baelish and Lord Varys or anybody else hadn't arrived yet. That meant only Lord Tywin would be present. Her hands trembled worse than before when she finally stopped in front of the second door.

Very well. Ella was going to sleep in the streets and Alienor had no intention of joining her. She would be quiet, swift and efficient. She would spill nothing. Lord Tywin wouldn't even notice her and even if he did, he couldn't be worse than Packer. Determined Alienor shifted the tray's weight, supported half of it with her knee and used her free hand to quietly open the door to the spacious council chamber.

00oo00

A/N: Apologies for any spelling mistakes and wrong grammar. English is not my native language, and if anybody happens to be interested in beta reading I would be more than happy to hear from you.


	2. A man's world

**Chapter 2: A man's world**

Alienor stepped into the chamber with slightly trembling hands. The early daylight fell through the big windows directly onto the big, wooden table in the middle of the room. Its smooth surface was of a reddish brown and appeared to be flawless. The young woman had never been in one of the 'real' rooms of the castle – only the kitchens and the servants' quarters – but she did not dare to look up and kept her gaze fixed on the tray in her hands, afraid to spill anything or, even worse, knock the big carafe of brown beer over. Just the thought of this made her hands tremble even more.

And where was Lord Tywin? Again she didn't dare to look up to see if anybody else was in the room. Maybe he was still in his solar or in the small yard adjacent to the council chamber.

Carefully she placed the heavy tray on the table, a small exhale of relief escaping her lips.

"What happened to the other wench?"

Startled Alienor spun around and knocked down the beer carafe. Her heart drummed in her chest and horrified she didn't know where to look at: the dark stream of beer slowly running down the table's flawless surface or the man, who was sitting at the end of the table, some letters scattered in front of him. He mustered Alienor out of calm, unblinking eyes.

Even without seeing the golden hand pinned to his dark red coat Alienor knew instantly that this man was Lord Tywin.

She hastily undid the small apron around her waist and started to clean up the mess on the table. "Oh, no,no,no,no…" A thousand thoughts were running through her head. Lord Tywin would think her clumsy (which she was), he would think she was not able to serve during his meetings (which apparently she wasn't), he would complain to Packer (or let a lower person complain on his behalf) and Packer… Well, she knew too well what Packer would do. Biting her lips, Alienor tried everything to keep from crying. Nobody would take her in, not with her sister. They were as good as dead just because of the bloody beer.

Motionless Tywin watched the new servant, who looked as if she wasn't sure whether to burst into tears or smash the carafe that had caused all the unrest into the wall. She was frantically cleaning the table, rubbing her apron over the surface again and. Her hair had the same colour as the table she was working on and long strands had found their way out of her braid. She was older than the other wench, somewhere between her 25th and 30th name day, but Tywin wasn't too sure about that. It was hard to guess the age of commoners. Most of them looked much older than they actually were. And mostly he didn't care anyway. This scene, however, was quite amusing.

"I think the table is better polished now than ever before", he finally interrupted her desperate mutters.

Alienor stopped in her movements and looked straight at him with big, brown eyes. "My Lord, I am so sorry. I will immediately get you more beer. I…"

"We will survive one meeting with just water." Tywin started to collect all the letters in front of him. "Don't bother with that, but answer my earlier question."

"My Lord?" As much as she tried, Alienor`s heartbeat couldn't get back to normal. She had spilled something, she had talked to Lord Tywin and, even worse, he had talked to her. He had _noticed_ her. She had done everything wrong. She was no pretty little ghost but a clumsy elephant. She had seen a picture of such an animal in one of her father's books many years ago.

"The other wench, what happened to her?" Tywin folded his hands and expectantly looked at the young woman. She still looked panic-stricken and he could see that her hands were trembling when she brushed a hair strand out of her face.

"I don't know, my Lord."

"You don't know or you don't want to tell because you might incriminate yourself?" The indignant look on her face was even more amusing. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes determinedly met his.

"My Lord, I would never…I really do not know!"

The older man just looked at her. Then he gestured towards her to bring him one of the water cups on the tray. "Maybe you wouldn't. But believe me, girl, I may not know much about the way of commoners like you, but I know that you play your games as ambitiously and ruthlessly as we highborns play ours." He took the cup from her small hand and locked his eyes with hers. "And I can imagine that serving at my meetings takes you higher up the kitchen hierarchy, doesn't it?"

Suddenly aware of her bold behaviour, Alienor quickly lowered her gaze. "If you say so, my Lord."

"I do." Tywin took a sip from the water before he turned his attention back to his correspondence. "And you should find out what happened to your predecessor. You don't want the same happening to you, do you?"

Alienor swallowed. "No, my Lord." She waited a few more seconds if anything else was demanded of her, but when Lord Tywin didn't look up from his papers anymore, she quickly left the room. As soon as the heavy door was closed behind her, Alienor pressed her forehead against the cold wall and sighed.

00oo00

When the overseer shot her a questioningly glance, Alienor just smiled at her, pretending that everything went smoothly. To her surprise, the old woman smiled back at her with crocked but white teeth. The rest of the day, Alienor spent with her usual tasks. She peeled potatoes, chopped carrots, washed fruits and vegetables and in-between she was sent up to the Tower again to clean away the now empty dishes. Alienor had been nervous about her return to the council chamber, but apart from another approving look of the young soldier, she had been able to work in piece. All the lords had already left when she entered the chamber. Alienor had used the quiet moment to inspect the table one last time to make sure that all evidence of her clumsiness was gone.

During her short break she was allowed to sit down in the servant's hall and have some bread. After hastily eating her sparse meal, she slipped out of the kitchen to use the remaining minutes to check on her sister.

The little room they lived in was gloomy and bare but dry and warmer than a lot of other chambers. It was located at the south side of the castle, so that at least a little bit of sunlight was shining through the small window. Two narrow mattresses filled with hay made a more or less comfortable bed and a wooden plank served as a shelf. Five books had found their place on top of it. The only possessions Alienor had taken from her childhood home when forced to leave. Two small boxes that contained her and her sister's few clothes inhabited the right corner of the room and on the left a small washbowl provided her with the opportunity to wash the kitchen's smell from her body every night.

Every day Alienor tried not to feel sad when coming into their new 'home'. Life would get better. The first step was done. Lord Tywin was right. By becoming the serving girl she had climbed up the hierarchy. Now all she had to do was to prove herself and maybe, in a few weeks, she may get an actual room and not just a cell. Alienor grimaced when she thought about today's incident. It would not happen again.

"What is wrong?"

Alienor immediately hid her emotions when she heard the faint voice coming from the bed. She put a smile on her lips and sat down next to her sister. Her tiny face was pale and her eyes looked tired. Alienor`s heart ached. All the coughing exhausted her sister but there was nothing she could do except for keeping her warm, bringing her tea every few hours and feed her the hot, thick soup that a sympathetic cook pushed into her hands every night.

"Nothing is wrong, Lyla. On the contrary. Guess what: I got promoted!" For once the bright smile on Alienor`s lips was genuine.

Her sister smiled back at her. "What are you doing now?"

"Well, now I can serve the meals for the high lords when they have their council meetings." She pushed a strand of hair out of her sister's hot face. "Today I even met Lord Tywin."

Her sister, however, was unimpressed. Being only nine years of age, she wasn't interested at all in lords or knights or men in general. "Did you see Lady Margaery? Or Lady Sansa?" She asked instead, her eyes not shining with fever but excitement. "Or Lady Cersei? She is Lord Tywin`s daughter, so maybe you will see her, Ali. She is the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms."

"Not yet, but I will look out for her. And for Lady Sansa and Lady Margaery as well."

"Good." Her sister looked content and snuggled deeper into the thick blankets Alienor had gotten from a former chambermaid that had left the castle to get married. "But maybe you should become a handmaid. You will see more ladies that way."

"I will work on that."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Reassured Lyla drifted back to sleep and Alienor watched her for a few moments before she had to return to the kitchen. Looking at her sister's fragile body and hearing her troubled breathing she vowed to make sure to catch at least a glimpse of one of her sister's favourite ladies.

00oo00

A few days later, Alienor was sent into town to get some more honey from the daily market. Suppertime was near and some stalls were already closing down for the night. A few women wearing grey, old dresses lingered near the stalls and the traders' carriages. Alienor often saw them when she was running last minute errands. All of them had families at home and many hungry mouths to feed. They belonged to the poorest of the poor. Their husbands were mostly day labourers and they gathered at the market in the evening hoping to strike a bargain. The war had resulted in a shortage of supplies and prices had gone up. Without the goodwill of some traders and farmers, most of the women and their families faced starvation.

Suddenly a familiar face caught her attention. Her head held high again and looking as determined as ever, Ella marched through the stalls towards one of the smaller alleys. Remembering Lord Tywin`s advise, Alienor hasted past the desperate women and busy traders. King`s Landing was a big city and she didn't know when she would see Ella again. This was her only chance to talk to her.

"Ella!"

The younger woman stopped in her tracks and turned her head. When she saw Alienor her mouth hardened. "What? What do you want?"

Panting, Alienor came to a halt in front of her. "I just… are you alright?"

Ella seemed to sense her genuine interest because her expression softened a bit. "Well, that depends. I don't sleep in a real bed anymore but in the stables of Harvey's Inn. I get one hot meal per day and for that I have to do the dishes from early morning until midnight. I will never be a maid. The best I can hope for is to be allowed to serve at Harvey's and get some extra coins when I smile sweetly and let the drunkards grab my tits and arse once in a while. Good thing is, I don't have to go back to where I came from, though my bloody mother offered it. So, I could be worse." Eager to end the conversation, the girl turned and continued her way towards the alley.

"Wait!" Alienor quickly grabbed her shoulder. Her own force surprised her, but she needed to know. Lord Tywin was right. Whatever had happened to Ella could happen to her as well. She wouldn't become one of the women at the stalls begging for scraps and old vegetables. "What happened?"

Ella sighed and put down her little basket. "Nothing happened. That's the problem. That damned soldier, Ian is his name, the young one guarding the door…You noticed him? Because I bet that he noticed you. Well, that bastard wanted to get a bit too close. I told him if he ever tried to do that again, I would take care of his cock, and not in the pleasant way. Last thing I need is a baby to feed. Packer would have kicked my butt up to the Wall. Well, he kicked me out anyway. The bastard told him that I 'tempted' him. As if." The girl snorted scornfully. "But Ian is a man and Packer is a man, so who would listen to my version of the story? Our old, fat overseer did, may the Gods bless her, though it is probably too late for that. But in the end, she is just a kitchen woman, too. All she could do was to put in a good word for me at Harvey's. I will never forget that." Ella bit her lip and mustered Alienor. She didn't seem to be sure what to say next. "Beware of that bastard", she finally advised. "You are a pretty face and you have your little sister to think about, poor thing. You won't find work elsewhere."

Alienor just nodded before she loosened her grip. However, she had one last question she was wondering about since her first day as serving girl. "Has he ever talked to you?"

"Who?"

"Lord Tywin."

Ella looked at her as if she was mad. "Lord Tywin? Of course not. I was the serving girl, silly. Nobody talked to me. Why? Did he talk to you?"

"Just briefly."

Again, Ella was quite for a long time and Alienor found herself wondering what was going on in the pretty girl's head. Sometimes she felt as if she was the sixteen year old and not Ella, and maybe that was the real reason why Alienor hadn't liked her. Ella mustered Alienor from head to toe again. "Well, maybe it's not Ian you have to worry about."

Alienor wasn't exactly sure what Ella intended to imply with her remark. "But I am just the serving girl, just like you. And you are much prettier than I am."

"You can't compare that. I am blonde, you are dark. Last night I have seen two men beating each other up about the question which women are prettier. I told you: Pretty face, nice body and you are a good ten years older than me, aren't you? You are not a serving girl, you are a full-grown _woman_. For men of a certain age this decade could make all the difference."

"Are you saying that…"

Again, Ella sighed. "Listen, I grew up in a whore house and worked my way up the castle kitchen. I have seen countless ordinary men and some lords. And all I am saying is that a noble man like Lord Tywin would never speak to a servant without a very good reason."


	3. Good Advise

Apologies for the delay. I just finished uni and am job hunting now, which takes a lot of time and energy. :(

00oo00

**Chapter 3: Good Advise**

Ian had been right. Alienor had gotten used to all the steps leading up the Tower of the Hand. After two weeks of working as the new serving girl, the stairs had become only a minor challenge. Ian, however, made her more and more uncomfortable. Every time she made her way up the Tower, she could see his gaze linger a little longer on her body. The feeling haunted her all the way to the council chamber and she began to dread this unimportant soldier more than Lord Tywin himself. To her relief the Hand of the King had ignored her the days following their first encounter, and Alienor was sure that he had forgotten about her.

Balancing her tray, Alienor, slipped through the door, feeling Ian's gaze following her. She smiled grimly. Today, she wouldn't worry about him. Today, she would be happy. The overseer had just told her that her promotion was permanent. Apparently, Packer despised her and her sister, but since she seemed to be doing her new job well, he saw no reason to start the search for a replacement. Alienor felt a little proud of herself.

She entered the council chamber confidently but quietly and started to arrange the food on the table. She couldn't help admiring its surface again. She did so every time, fascinated by how a piece of wood could be that smooth, glowing in such a deep reddish brown colour.

"Did you find out?"

Her head snapped in the direction the familiar voice came from. Lord Tywin had looked up from his paper work. Apparently he had not forgotten about her. She immediately knew what he was talking about, their first and last conversation still fresh in her head.

"Yes, my Lord." She carefully arranged the last plate, trying to keep her gaze down as was expected of a servant. Still, she could feel his eyes not leaving her face.

"Could it happen to you as well?"

"Yes, my Lord." _Unfortunately_.

Lord Tywin continued to probe. "And? Can you protect yourself?"

Ian had told lies about Ella out of revenge. She had turned him down and his pride had been hurt. Alienor had no doubt that he would do it again, making a woman suffer for something she hadn't done. There was only one option to stop him from doing so. Giving him what he wanted. Alienor shuddered. _Never!_

"I don't think so, my Lord."

Tywin seemed to sense her discomfort. She watched him out of the corner of her eye. His head was slightly crocked and his chin rested on the back of his hand. The parchment in front of him was forgotten. Alienor was the focus of his attention and this realisation made her heart beat faster again. When she lifted her hand to put a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers left moist prints on the perfect table surface.

"That is nonsense", Tywin finally said, his voice quiet and measured. "You only can't protect yourself, when you don't know where the danger lies. Once you know that, you can take counter measures. Mostly it is all about timing, about being faster than your enemy. Act, don't just react." He paused briefly. "Do you understand?"

The young woman slowly turned her head and looked Tywin straight in the face. Her eyes were big, and even from the distance he saw that they were of an unusually light brown. She reminded him of a doe. Beautiful and vulnerable, and confused about whether the approaching man simply wanted to admire her or intended to hunt her down. Finally, she nodded. "Yes, my Lord."

"Good. You may leave now. I assume you have a considerable amount of work to do and some…matters to attend to, and so do I." Although he pretended to focus on his letter, Tywin continued to watch Alienor until the heavy door fell shut behind her…just like he had done the last two weeks. Again he noticed that little habit of hers; every day she brushed a strand of hair out of her face, smoothed down her apron, briefly run her small fingers one last time over the table's surface and only after this little ritual she left the council chamber with quick, long strides. Absent-mindedly Tywin picked up the quill, his eyes still fixed on the door, wondering what a curious woman that kitchen wench was. He smiled to himself; he liked hunting.

00oo00

This night, not her sister's regular coughing fits and weak breathing, but her own thoughts kept Alienor awake. Her mind was running while she tossed and turned on her thin mattress, sometimes absent-mindedly rubbing Lyla's back. Just after the bells of the Sept had announced midnight, she came to a simple but not surprising conclusion.

Lord Tywin was right. Again.

Alienor despised intrigues and lies, and neither did she have a natural talent for plotting and planning nor did she enjoy such activities. But her own gut had told her a long time ago that waiting this particular problem out would do more damage than good, and Tywin's remark had only reinforced her sense of approaching danger.

Alienor didn't know what to make of the man. He was so powerful, but despite of his power he had more than one war to lead and struggled to hold the realm together. _Why does he even talk to me_?, she wondered.

Ella's remark crept back into her mind and she blushed in the dark. He surely had no intentions of that kind. She was only the kitchen wench. There were other women, women like Ella's mother, who were more beautiful and much more experienced in the art of pleasuring a noble man and, therefore, had to be more appealing to a lord. Sometimes she saw some of these women discretely slipping in and out of the castle through the servant's entrance. The maids were always busy gossiping about the receivers of these visits. Some names came up on a regular basis, some just occasionally, but Alienor could not remember that Lord Tywin was ever mentioned. Her face felt cool again.

He was not like any other man. Alienor had soon realised that it wasn't the King but Lord Tywin who was actually ruling. Undoubtedly, he had to waste neither time nor energy fooling around with low-born women.

_Maybe he is just being kind_, she thought.

Maybe he was. She knew from experience that sometimes some people could show unexpected kindness. Likewise, some people that you thought to be amiable and honest would suddenly show their evil and destructive character.

Alienor sighed. Whatever his reasons – she convinced herself that she was quite relieved that she could rule out any unseemly ulterior motives – his advise was more than valuable to her. In an environment characterised by intrigue, changing loyalties and overly ambitious noble men, he had managed to survive that long, gaining more and more influence and power, and building the greatest house in the Seven Kingdoms. With his advise she should be able to keep her sister and herself safe in the much smaller but apparently not less dangerous world of the servants.

Next to her Lyla started to shiver slightly, moving closer to her older sister. Sighing, Alienor wrapped her arms around her. If telling some lies and slightly bending her personal morals were the price for their surviving in King's Landing, she was more than willing to pay it. Having made a decision, the young woman allowed her mind and body to drift to sleep, blissfully unaware that their future would require much more of her than _slightly_ bending her morals.

00oo00

A single candle lighted the small chamber, illuminating two naked bodies lying on a narrow bed. A large, masculine hand followed the curves of a full bottom, teasingly grabbing a rosy cheek and giving it a slight slap. A high, playful squeak filled the room. "Stop it."

"I thought you like that." The hand wandered to the other cheek and then started to explore the warm, wet area between them.

As an answer, the soft body shifted slightly while the woman it belonged to rolled on her back, offering better access to the hand and her full breasts to a hungry male mouth.

"You know I do", a dark voice whispered softly. The woman run her hand through the man's blonde hair and closed her eyes when he started circling her nipple with his tongue. She felt him smile against her skin.

Without a warning, she suddenly yanked his head up and brought his face close to hers, enjoying his brief look of confusion. "But you know, what I would like even more."

Confusion changed into annoyance. Sighing, Ian removed his hands from between her legs and sat up grabbing for his shirt. "And you know that I can't do that, Sue." _Even if I wanted to,_ he added silently in his mind. "I don't earn enough to support you, let alone a family."

The woman pursed her full lips. Alongside her long, thick black hair, her mouth was Sue's proud and glory. Whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in a looking glass, she reassured herself that these two attributes made up for a rather big nose and short eyelashes, both of which had annoyed her since early adulthood. "You forget that I earn, too", Sue whispered into her lover's ear, pressing her breasts against his back.

"You serve in the Great Hall, my dear, how much do you earn there, mhm?" Laughing, Ian let himself be distracted by her soft skin and turned around to pay some more attention to her breasts. His words, however, had a less than desirable effect on Sue, who briskly pushed his hands away.

"Well, I work harder than you do. And I make enough money."

"And how much do you think you will get, when the men get wind that you are suddenly married to a soldier? When they can't give you coin after coin anymore just for grabbing your arse." Ian couldn't help but smile cruelly at the hurt expression in Sue's eyes.

Without hesitation she got up, grabbed her dress and went for the door. Before she left, she stared into Ian's smiling face. "Oh, I would get even more. Because as soon as the men hear to whom I am married, they would just do what they always do." She slapped herself on her full butt and threw Ian another, this time triumphant glance. "And do you know why? Because they know that they don't have to be afraid of you. That you couldn't defend my honour even if you wanted to. You are a fine soldier...standing at a stupid door all day. The real soldiers are going to war against Stanis, fighting on the battle field and dying for their King."

With that, she stormed out the door and left Ian alone in the small room, half-naked and shaking with hurt pride. The smile on his face had turned into a furious grimace.


End file.
